by Gary Priour

For a long time, I’ve thought there was just one crowd in Jerusalem that last week of Jesus’ life . . . the one that hailed Him at the gates, then turned around and cried out for His crucifixion five days later. After all, we are each capable of treachery, and the human heart can turn from one extreme to the other between beats.

But a friend suggested to me recently that there were really two crowds. The first one might have been shaken by the events that unfolded in Jerusalem that week, might have become afraid and gone underground, even betrayed Him in a failure of courage.

But was there another group that gathered outside Pilate’s balcony on Friday morning? An unlikely mixture of disappointed revolutionaries and religious officials conspiring to be rid of the nuisance from Nazareth once and for all?

If so, then there is a difference between sinners more significant than that between sins. For, despite the commonality of behaviors and sufferings which make us all equally vulnerable to sin and its consequences, the Shepherd calls to his sheep, and they hear His call, and He gathers them into one flock.

Such a distinction suggests, on the spiritual level, a split in humanity that groups people, in the end, according to the voice they’ve chosen to heed, and the Master who prevails in their lives.